


Because It's Christmas

by Michevalier



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS
Genre: Akiema, Christmas Fluff, F/M, Here is my small Christmas fairytale, I simply cannot write without any, Light Angst, Lol?, Merry Christmas!, anyway, hireshipping
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-24
Updated: 2017-12-24
Packaged: 2019-02-19 10:02:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,287
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13121442
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Michevalier/pseuds/Michevalier
Summary: Being alone during Christmas holidays was something Ema was used to, in fact, sometimes she felt like it was something entirely comfortable to her.Akira's presence in her life though was what changed it forever.





	Because It's Christmas

**Author's Note:**

  * For [TheAzureFox](https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheAzureFox/gifts).



> Merry Christmas to everyone!
> 
> I hope I did well with this small piece and you enjoy it, Azure! :3

Enjoying the tasty odor of fresh baked buns and donats, Ema was waiting at the small coffee shop. Digital clock displayed on the nearby wall was blatantly demonstarting that time was not standing still, though the woman didn't need any additional devices to tell that as her coffee was inevitably getting colder with each passing second.

Ema sighed loudly with a hint of a slight annoyance in her voice.

Some sort of armagedon must have happened, there was simply no other explanation to why would so always punctual Zaizen Akira be twenty minutes late.

Ema took a bite of her sugar powdered donut and, having put her elbows on the table, looked out of the window, watching the street illuminated by lots of colorful lights. The woman smiled at the sight of dozens decorations and infinite silver blanket covering everything within the range of view. Den City was sure getting beautiful around Christmas holidays. It was noisy inside the coffee shop as lots of people of all ages were spending time with their friends, there were couples not hiding that they were having dates. Even more people were walking outside, behind the glass embroidered with hoarfroast that Ema kept staring at. Tons of folks were obviously rushing to get gifts for their family and friends or buy ingredients for preparing their Christmas table.

" _The coffee shop is closing early tonight,_ " flashed through Ema's thoughts as she glanced up at the clock for the hundreth time. " _The staff here also has people with whom they are eager to start celebrating as soon as possible..._ "

"Damn you, Akira," the woman bit her lower lip, forgetting about how only an hour ago she was meticulously choosing a proper hygienic lipstick so that her lips wouldn't get a single crack because of the frost. "What's taking you so long..?"

She barely finished her sentence when the small bells hanging above the entrance clanged and the subject of her concern, heavily breathing and with reddened cheeks, appeared on the threshold.

"Well-well," Ema waved to catch Akira's attention and chuckled as he approached her. "I thought being late was women's priority."

"My apologies," the man gave her a small smile, taking his seat on a small leather coach so that he was facing Ema. "Apparently rush hour is round-the-clock when it's Christmas."

"So you were stuck in a little jam, huh?" the woman cooed and suddenly something weird caught her attention.

Weird, uncharacteristic for Zaizen Akira. At first glance there was nothing out of ordinary, Ema was used to his sleek, strict and, as she sometimes bluntly called it, boring style in clothing. And that was exactly the reason why the big colorful piece of fabric wrapped around his neck was akin to the eighth miracle of the world.

"Nice scarf," Ema giggled, sipping her coffee. "Let me guess, Aoi-chan's present?"

"Hm?" Akira was still looking adorably funny with that bright red nose akin to the one of Santa Claus. "Ah, this? That's right."

The man smiled and his pink eyes gleamed softly at the mention of his younger sister.

"Can you imagine it?" he chuckled. "She weaved it by herself."

The radiance of Ema's own smile faded a little as something akin to tiny kittens was scratching inside her chest.

"Is that so?" her lips slightly curved in a smile on duty. "Cute. I bet it's nice to have someone giving you gifts for Christmas, eh?"

"It is," Akira agreed, his eyes shone with tenderness. "I'm so proud of her. Can you imagine? Her poor fingertips got all prickled."

"Mmm?" Ema added one extra teaspoon of sugar to her coffee as she needed to dispose of a sudden bitterness that appeared at the tip of her tongue. "I believe you took some time to kiss them, right?"

"Haha," Akira laughed, and suddenly Ema even forgot for a moment that it was actually a twenty six years old man in front of her and not a young boy. "I sure did."

"Hehe, well done," the woman forced a wider smile as she sipped her extra-sweet coffee (to get rid of the bitterness!).

"By the way," Akira looked up at her, "why did you call me, Ema? Any business?"

"Calling somebody to meet for business is your habit, no?" their gazes met, and the woman did her best not to let her feelings reflect in her big eyes. "Can't I call you just to hang out now that Christmas is coming?"

"Oh? How nice of you," the man gave her a warm smile, but then he looked down at her hands. "Um, why are you wearing gloves inside?"

"Hm?" she shuddered barely perceptibly as there were indeed a pair of leather gloves hiding her hands. "Ah, these? You know, women sometimes go too far in desire to protect their lovely gentle skin. I'm no expection."

"I see," then a simple paper bag caught Akira's attention.

"Hawk-eye, huh?" Ema giggled as she followed his gaze's direction and put the bag on her knees.

"What is that?"

"Is that so hard to figure out?" the woman winked at him. "Considering the current calendar?"

"A gift?" bewildered, Akira blinked. "For me?"

"For you excluvely, Zaizen-san. There should be times when instead of taking money from you I could give you something," Ema teased him as she took something green and puffy out of the bag. "Ta-dah!"

"Wow," the man's eyes widened at the sight of a sweater with a couple of cuddling puppies embroidered with darker and lighter pink threads on it. "This is so adorable!"

"You think so?" something anxious flashed in Ema's eyes as he took it in his hands.

"I do!" Akira smiled, examining it. "Have you actually bought something for me?"

"Can you imagine it?" the woman gave him another cheerful wink. "And I'm not even asking you to compensate for it!"

"This is a gift after all," a chuckle came in response. "It's just I didn't... Why?"

"Well... because it's Christmas?"

"Thank you very much," Akira gave her a tender look. "I'm sorry, I don't have anything for you at the moment."

"Nah, it's okay," Ema carelessly waved her hand. "I can bet you've already spent quite a large sum on something exquisite for Aoi-chan."

"That is so," flustered, Akira scratched the back of his head. "I bought her a pair of gorgeous golden earrings. Wait a second."

Having took out his I-Pad, the man quickly googled the needed item and showed it to Ema.

"My god," she whistled, looking at the elaborate piece of jewelry in form of hollyhock flowers. "These must have costed at the very least a half of your current salary."

"It really did," Akira's blush grew more visible.

"Aoi-chan is sure lucky to have such a nice big brother as you," Ema gave him back his device.

"I hope so..." the man's expression turned painfully serious. "There is nothing in this world that I wouldn't try and give it to her."

"There is no more precious gift than your attention and love, Akira," Ema shrugged and took another sip of her almost nauseatingly sweet coffee.

"I suppose you're right," he sighed. "By the way, Ema?"

"Mm?"

"What are you doing later this evening?"

"What's with the question?"

"Well..." Akira's barely recovered from the frost cheeks turned vermillion again. "I was thinking about inviting you to spend this Christmas eve with us, me and Aoi?"

"Ooh?" Ema's eyes widened for a second before returning to normal. "Why so suddenly?"

"Perhaps..." the man was already visibly fidgeting. "Because it's Christmas?"

"And?"

"Um... It's usually celebrated with the ones close to us?"

Ema's heart, as it seemed to had previously turned cold from the frost outside, fluttered and broke through the thin icy crust it was covered with.

"Eeh?" her lips curved in a sly smile as her eyes glimmered with mischevious lights. "You think I'm that close to you?"

Akira's own heart froze for a second and shriveled inside his chest as he looked up at the woman with uncertainty.

"You..." he tried to spoke as casually as usual. "You have already got some plans for tonight?"

"Yep!" Ema replied with a huge smile plastered across her face. "Me and my fellow treasure hunter associates are gathering to hang out in a nice night club not very far from here."

"Your... associates?"

"Yep!"

"Oh..." the lively glimmer that was previously in Akira's eyes faded. "Alright then. I hope you have fun with your friends."

"They are not exactly friends," Ema shrugged. "But thank you. I hope you do too with Aoi."

The two had some chat over a cup of coffee for about another half an hour and then went home. Along the way that was common for them for quite awhile Ema swiftly avoided spots with mistletoes, much to Akira's unexplainable chagrin that was barely visible through his usual set-in-stone stoic facial expression.

"So, I guess this is it," Ema said when they stopped in front of her house. "Merry Christmas to you, Akira."

"Same to you, Ema," the man replied and, for some reason, hesitated a bit before leaving.

Having watched him going away, the woman sighed and looked up.

"Not keeping Christmas traditions, heh?" she commented, looking at the mistletoe.

Ema couldn't blame him though. After all, she was the one who told him lies. There were no "associates" she was going to have fun with tonight. Like, come on, did Akira really buy that treasure hunters hang out with one another? It was against the very definition of a "treasure hunter", a person who only cared about their own gain and were akin to hungry wolves ready to rip others apart when it came to getting their hands the treasure.

Ema entered her bathed in darkness apartment, not hurrying to turn on the lights. She had always enjoyed darkness and not only because it was helping her to spare more money for electricity. That was also the reason why there was no sign of christmas tree nor any other decorations in the luxurious living room. 

More elaborate reason though?

Ema's gaze flickered towards her phone. She knew all to well that it won't ring during this evening, not even once. There was simply nobody who could bother calling Bessho Ema at this hour. No friends, family... the situation with the latter was far worse than one could have imagined. But, in short, there were no people who could take their time and wish Ema Merry Christmas. It was normal and annually practiced thing for the lone hunter.

" _I'm sorry, I don't have anything for you at the moment,_ " Akira's voice suddenly resurfaced from her memory.

"You actually found some time to spend with me and not because of business," Ema whispered almost like back in childhood when she genuinely believed she could scare the Christmas Spirit away by being too loud, or, at least, her long-forgotten-of-her-daughter's-existence mother used to tell her so.

Ema sighed and finally took off her gloves.

"I'm glad you're proud of Aoi-chan," she forced a smile as she examined her fingertips, all prickled and wrapped with band-aids.

Chuckling, Ema looked at the basket where some leftovers of her yarn were still kept.

"I hope I guessed your size correctly..." the woman lowered her gaze, wondering if Akira was trying on that goofy sweater at this very moment.

In any case, Ema had plans for this eve, she wasn't exactly lying to Akira about that. 

She walked up to refrigerator and took a couple of bottles of a good wine and then prepared some snacks. TV and comfortable coach along with warm blanket were patiently waiting for her like they always did every year. Having changed into pajamas, Ema took a bowl with crackers and a plate with canapés to the living and flopped down on the said coach.

"Merry Christmas to you, Akira..." she said in a quiet voice, watching happy families celebrating on every single channel.

No, it was definitely okay for Bessho Ema to celebrate all by herself, she was used to it after all...

If there was any stability in her uncertain treasure hunter's life it was that every holiday she would spend alone. There was nothing that could possibly surprise or startle Ema during this time. 

Her expected loneliness had always been her stability and not being bothered by anything at all was the best present Ema could have ever gotten.

***

The sound of distant bells ringing was only adding to Akira's anxiety as he stood at the threshold of Ema's apartment. Slick and elegant as usual, the man repeated for a thousandth time whatever he had to say after this huge bouquet of crimson roses would be in the woman's hands.

"I hope she would say "yes"..." Akira whispered like back in his childhood and put his hand in his pocket, checking if mischievous elves hadn't stole away the precious tiny box.

Having taken a deep breath to calm himself down, Akira smiled. The sweater presented to him by Ema was making him feel warmth both around and inside of his chest and this nice feeling was what gave the man courage to finally ring the bell after having spent almost ten minutes in front of the door.

"Merry Christmas to you, Ema!" his big radiant smile took her aback against all her wishes.

" _Because it's Christmas you can't be alone..._ "something whispered in her thoughts as she smiled back at him.

"Well-well, welcome, Akira, welcome! What brings you here so early in the morning?"

Ema did her best to hide her joyous tears as she let the man into her apartment.

_She was not alone this Christmas... and she wasn't going to be ever again._


End file.
